Freedom Now!
28-2
The Main Idea
The quest for civil rights became a nationwide movement in the 1960s as
African Americans won political and legal rights, and segregation was
largely abolished.
Reading Focus
•
What are sit-ins and Freedom Rides, and why were they important in the
1960s?
•
How was the integration of higher education achieved in the South?
•
What role did Albany, Georgia, and Birmingham, Alabama, play in the
history of civil rights?
•
What concerns and events led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of
1964?
Non-Violent Protests during
the Civil Rights Movement
• Civil rights workers used several direct, nonviolent methods to
confront discrimination and racism in the late 1950s and early
1960s.
– Boycotts
– Sit-ins
– Freedom Rides
• Many of these non-violent tactics were based on those of
Mohandas Gandhi—a leader in India’s struggle for
independence from Great Britain.
• American civil rights leaders such as James Farmer of CORE,
Martin Luther King Jr. of SCLC, and others shared Gandhi’s
views.
• James Lawson, an African American minister, conducted
workshops on nonviolent methods in Nashville and on college
campuses.
The Strategy of Nonviolence
The Sit-in Movement
The Freedom Rides
• Four college students in
Greensboro, North Carolina,
stayed in their seats at a
Woolworth’s lunch counter
after being refused service
because of their race.
• In 1960 the Supreme Court
ordered that bus station
facilities for interstate
travelers must be open to all
passengers. But this ruling
was not enforced.
• Over the next few days,
protesters filled 63 of the 66
seats at the lunch counter.
• CORE sent a group of
Freedom Riders on a bus trip
through the South to draw
attention to this situation.
• The students were dedicated
and well-behaved and ended
each sit-in with a prayer.
• Over time, protesters in
about 50 southern cities
began to use the sit-in tactic.
• Mobs angry at the Freedom
Riders attempts to use whiteonly facilities firebombed a
bus in Anniston, Alabama and
attacked riders with baseball
bats and metal pipes in
Birmingham.
Results of Sit-ins and Freedom Rides
• Succeeded at getting businesses to change their
policies
Sit-ins
• Marked a shift in the civil rights movement—
showed young African Americans’ growing
impatience with the slow pace of change
• Leaders formed the SNCC.
Freedom
Rides
• After the savage beatings in Birmingham, bus
companies refused to sell the Freedom Riders
tickets and CORE disbanded the Freedom Ride.
• SNCC continued the Freedom Rides.
Federal
Intervention
• Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent federal
marshals to Montgomery to protect the riders.
• The Interstate Commerce Commission finally
forced the integration of bus and train stations.
Integration of Higher Education in the South
•
By 1960 the NAACP began to attack segregation in colleges and
universities.
•
In 1961 a court order required the University of Georgia to admit two
African American students.
– Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes suffered but both graduated in
1963.
•
In 1962 James Meredith tried to enroll at the University of Mississippi.
– He arrived on campus with 500 federal marshals and was met by 2,500
violent protesters.
– President Kennedy went on national television to announce that he was
sending in troops.
– The troops ended the protest but hundreds had been injured and two
killed.
– A small force of marshals remained to protect Meredith until he
graduated in 1963.
•
In 1963 the governor of Alabama physically blocked Vivian Malone and
James Hood from enrolling at the University of Alabama.
What role did Albany, Georgia, and
Birmingham, Alabama, play in the history of
civil rights?
• Local officials in Albany, Georgia, ignored the
Interstate Commerce Commission’s new
integration rules.
• Birmingham, Alabama, was known for its strict
enforcement of segregation.
The Albany Movement
The Movement
• SNCC began a sit-in in
Albany’s bus station.
• Over 500 demonstrators
were arrested.
• The federal government
was informed but took no
action.
• Local leaders asked Martin
Luther King Jr. to lead
more demonstrations and
to gain more coverage for
the protests.
• He agreed and was also
arrested.
The Results
• The police chief had
studied King’s tactics and
made arrangements to
counter-act the nonviolent
protest.
• When the press arrived,
King was released.
• City officials would only
deal with local leaders
until King left.
• Once King left, officials
would not negotiate at all.
• The nine-month
movement failed.
The Birmingham Campaign
The Campaign
The Results
• Martin Luther King raised
money to fight Birmingham’s
segregation laws.
• A SCLC leader convinced King
to use children for his
protests.
• Volunteers began with sit-ins
and marches and were
quickly arrested.
• More than 900 children
between ages six and
eighteen were arrested.
• King hoped this would
motivate more people to join
the protests.
• Police Chief Eugene “Bull”
Connor used police and fire
fighters to break up a group
of about 2,500 student
protesters.
• White clergy attacked King’s
actions in a newspaper ad.
• King wrote his “Letter from a
Birmingham Jail.”
• Fewer African Americans
were willing to join and risk
their jobs.
• The violence of Connor’s
methods was all over the
television news.
• Federal negotiators got the
city officials to agree to many
of King’s demands.
Violence in Birmingham
Civil Rights Act of 1964
President
Kennedy
Medgar
Evers
•
The events in Alabama convinced President Kennedy to
act on civil rights issues.
•
Kennedy announced that he would ask for legislation to
finally end segregation in public accommodations.
•
Medgar Evers, the head of the NAACP in Mississippi,
was shot dead in his front yard.
•
Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith was tried for
the crime but all-white juries failed to convict.
•
On August 28, 1963, the largest civil rights
demonstration ever held in the United States took place
in Washington.
March
on
Washington •
More than 200,000 people marched and listened to
Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
Passing the Civil Rights Act
• President Johnson supported passage of a
strong civil rights bill.
• Some southerners in Congress fought hard to
kill his bill.
• Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into
law on July 2, 1964.
• The law banned discrimination in employment
and in public accommodations.
“…Wait a minute … Somebody has gotta keep this thing on the track!”
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